Downtown Saginaw flipped upside down by series of acquisitions, the latest a possible downtown consolidation by Michigan Works

View full sizeJeff Schrier | The Saginaw News archivesView is to the northwest. Photo was taken April 14, 2010.

SAGINAW — A series of land sales, infrastructure upgrades and prospective developments in recent years and months have set the stage for a turnaround in downtown Saginaw, says Development Director Odail Thorns.

“We’ve got opportunity” here, Thorns said.

Less than two weeks after AT&T announced its plan to move about 230 workers from its Saginaw Township office to its downtown Saginaw office on South Washington where about 250 people currently work; about a week since Gus Macker 3-on-3 basketball tournament organizers announced a return to downtown in 2013; Great Lakes Bay Michigan Works is announcing the possibility of consolidating its office in downtown.

“We are in negotiations and we are hopeful and optimistic that it will happen, but it is premature for us to talk about it,” the agency’s director and chief executive officer Ed Oberski said in a release Wednesday.

Great Lakes Bay Michigan Works currently operates three Saginaw County locations in Chesaning Township, Saginaw Township and Saginaw, its website shows.

Thorns said there has been discussion regarding the development at the current site of three buildings in the area near Rally’s fast-food restaurant, 420 E. Genesee, by Saginaw developer SSP Associates Inc., a partnership led by Dr. Samuel H. Shaheen, and mention of leasing interest by Great Lakes Bay Michigan Works, but nothing concrete.

View full sizeFile | The Saginaw NewsBearinger Building, 126 North Franklin in Saginaw

“They’re going to clean up the corner” and “that’s the number one thing that we're involved in,” Thorns said, adding he wouldn’t be surprised if the employment-assistance agency relocated to the area. “If you start looking at a place like Michigan Works, you look at the people who are served, most of them are In the Saginaw area.”

SSP Associates owns a strip of nearby buildings west of South Baum at 304, 310, 314 and 316 E. Genesee, Saginaw’s online assessor records show, but representatives for the company could not be reached for comment.

The city of Saginaw owns two empty lots at 320 and 322 E. Genesee.

“There were some bids taken in order to consolidate our service center” in Saginaw, said Saginaw County Commissioner Eddie F. Foxx, D-Bridgeport Township, who is on a Michigan Works consortium with commissioners from Bay and Midland counties. “How those bids came out,” I’m not certain.

A Michigan Works administrative employee said no requests for proposal related to a development on East Genesee have appeared on the agency’s website.

Thorns said an item related to development in the area is expected to appear on the Saginaw City Council agenda Monday, but he declined to elaborate, as the final agenda isn’t approved until Thursday afternoon.

Several prominent buildings in downtown Saginaw have changed ownership or are projected to this year.

Bay City developer Tim Hunnicutt with the Front Porch Renaissance Group, a company that renovates historic homes and buildings, has exhibited continued interest in purchasing the Bearinger Fireproof Building at 126 N. Franklin.

Hunnicutt told Thorns the “price is right” for the Bearinger building, which had been listed by the Warren-based nonprofit company that owns it on CraigsList.com, a classifieds website, for $50,000 as recently as February.

And “we’ve had other folks knocking at our door” for that property, Thorns said.

The previous tenants of the Bearinger building were evicted in 2009.

Saginaw businesses, officials and developers are planning the future use of the 120-unit Bancroft Building at 107 S. Washington and the 30-unit Eddy Place at 100 N. Washington, which Michigan State Housing Development Authority representatives said will no longer be used for public housing come November.